As I continue my Doctor Who re-watch, I suspect that I am going to end up with two streams of it – not inappropriate for a time-travel series in which the Doctor’s various regenerations intersect, I dare say! As I continue working through from the beginning, because there are so many lost episodes, I will [Read More…]

The Torchwood episode “To The Last Man” from Season 2 marks my return to watching my way through the series from the beginning. I am not sure whether this episode had a different composer score the music, but it was far more striking to me than the music has generally been in the past. It [Read More…]

The Doctor Who episode The Crusade sees the TARDIS and its passengers encounter Richard the Lionheart as he fights – and unsuccessfully considers a means of potentially reaching peace with – Saladin. The episode had the potential to have much more reference to religion than it did. But in fact, it was probably realistic to [Read More…]

The Doctor Who episode The Myth Makers witnesses the TARDIS and its occupants arriving near ancient Troy, which had been at war with Greece for ten long years. Achilles and Hector are fighting and after Hector insults the gods of Greece including Zeus, and so when the Doctor suddenly emerges from the TARDIS, he is [Read More…]

This episode from the third season of Doctor Who, “The Massacre of St. Bartholemew’s Eve,” focuses on events in 16th century France, when the spread of Protestantism has led to tensions between Catholics and the Protestant Huguenots. Like many but not all episodes in which the time travelers land in Earth’s past, this episode focuses [Read More…]

The episode “The Aztecs” brings religion to the foreground once again. The travelers find themselves in ancient South America among the Aztecs, and Barbara is mistaken for a goddess. When she learns that they are planning to offer a human sacrifice, she decides to try to persuade the people that the rains will come with [Read More…]

I was reminded of two quick passing references on Doctor Who that had completely slipped my mind: I wonder whether somehow missed the first time I saw these episodes, or if perhaps I made a mental note of them but had forgotten by the end of watching them. From “Voyage of the Damned”: ASTRID This [Read More…]

The short (two part) story “The Edge Of Destruction” (the second part to which bears the title “The Brink of Despair”) was the first story to be told solely within the TARDIS and involving the Doctor and his regular companions. This was at least partly motivated by budgetary concerns, but in fact the story works [Read More…]